Celani Sikhakhane
Former IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi has accused the government of shutting down some institutions of higher learning as part of a vendetta against him.
Buthelezi made the accusation whilst speaking to the community of Nongoma on Friday, where he was invited by the Nongoma local municipality to hand over agricultural equipment.
During his time as the leader of the erstwhile KwaZulu government from 1977 to 1994, he said he built these colleges in order to assist black people who were oppressed by the apartheid government.
“Those colleges that I built in that time no longer exist. The ANC government decides to close them all because of the hatred against me,” he told the crowd.
“I even built Mangosuthu University of Technology, Prince Mshiyeni Memorial hospital and other institutions.”
Some of the colleges that were shut down include Cwaka college of education, Appelsbosch college of education, Umzimkhulu college, Ntuzuma teachers training college, kwaGqikazi college, and nursing colleges.
Between 1994 and 2000, the government shut down teacher training colleges and merged them with other institutions.
The move was aimed at “overcoming the educational inequalities of apartheid and reducing an identified oversupply of primary [school] teachers,” according to Minister of Higher Education Blade Nzimande.
After the decision by the government to shut down colleges, Buthelezi alleges that most of the courses were transferred to universities and, he claims, ANC politicians made an excuse that those colleges were of a poor standard for black students.
Ahead of the 2019 general elections, the IFP were campaigning about opening of colleges.
The fight between the IFP and the ANC over the institution of learning has been an ongoing issue for years.
